Termination Procedure

Referring to the Termination Ground

The employer must execute a termination based on grounds related to the employee’s person within a reasonable time period after being informed of the existence of the termination ground. What is considered as reasonable time varies based on the circumstances.

Both the employer and the employee must cancel the employment agreement within 14 days from the date when the party cancelling the agreement received the information constituting the cancellation ground. Otherwise the cancellation ground expires and cannot be used.

Hearing of the employee

Before the employer terminates an employment agreement, the employer shall provide the employee with an opportunity to be heard concerning the grounds for termination. The purpose of the hearing is to provide the employee with an opportunity to share his/her view on the termination grounds. Naturally, the hearing obligation only applies to situations where the termination or cancellation is due to person-related grounds. The employee is entitled to utilize an assistant when being heard.

Before the employee cancels an employment agreement the employee must provide the employer with an opportunity to be heard concerning the grounds for cancellation.

The hearing can be conducted either verbally or in writing. Minutes or a memo can be conducted from the hearing, but is not mandatory.

Obligation to offer other work

Before terminating an employment agreement, the employer must, after consulting the employee, ascertain whether the termination can be avoided by reassigning the employee to another position. The employee doesn’t need to be reassigned if the failure to comply with or breach of the obligations of the employment is so serious that the employer cannot reasonably be expected to continue the contractual relationship.

The Employer's Duty to Explain

Before the employer terminates an employment agreement on production-related or financial grounds, the employer must explain the grounds for and alternatives to the termination to the employee to be given notice. The explanation must be given in as good time as possible. If the terminations concern more than one employee, the explanation can be given to a representative of the employees or the employees jointly.

If the employer is required to negotiate on the grounds for termination with the employees or their representatives, e.g. according to the Act on Cooperation within Undertakings, the employer is not required to provide the explanation. For further information about the negotiation obligation [Cooperation Negotiation Obligation in Reducing the Use of Personnel]⁠.

Notice of Termination

When either the employer or the employee wants to end an employment relationship, the other party must be notified. In case the relationship is terminated, the notice period begins from the receipt of termination notice. In case a party wants to cancel a employment agreement, the employment relationship ends when the notice has been received.

The notice must be delivered in person. If this is not possible, the notice can be mailed or sent electronically. To prevent evidence problems, it is recommended to deliver the notice in writing. This is important since the employer must prove that the employee has received the notice.If the notice has been sent by letter or email, the notice is deemed to have been received by the recipient at the latest on the seventh day after the notice was sent. If the employee is on annual holiday or on a holiday of at least two weeks given in order to balance out working hours, the employment termination based on a notice delivered by letter or electronically, shall not be regarded as delivered until the date following the last day of the vacation or holiday at the earliest.

It is important to pay attention to in which form the termination notice can be given, since the notice period begins only once the notice has been given. The time of receipt means the time when the employee has been informed of the termination. For further information see [General Notice Periods]⁠.

At the employee's request, the employer must without delay notify the employee in writing of the date of the termination of the employment agreement and of the grounds for the termination or cancellation as known by the employer to have caused the termination. It is recommended already provide this information in the written termination notice.

Other obligations to inform the employee

In connection to serving the notice of termination on productional and economic reasons or because of restructuring, the employer must inform the employees in question about their rights to employment plan, if there are at least 10 employees made redundant, and if the employee is over 55 years and has worked for the same employer for 5 years or longer without interruptions, about his/her rights to Transition Security allowance and Transition Security training, see [Transition Security]